


Immersion Therapy

by Fervious



Category: Marvel (Comics)
Genre: I don't like writing underage fics, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Sexual Assault, Past Underage Sex, Peter's no longer a minor folks, Serious topic but really more of a drabble than a planned out fic, lol
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23117926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fervious/pseuds/Fervious
Summary: Peter Parker has a minor touch phobia and Wade has a hard time not taking it personally.
Relationships: Peter Parker/Wade Wilson
Kudos: 56





	Immersion Therapy

It’s funny how fate works. Peter died to Wade twice, but that’s just part of the journey of Wade becoming a better person. It’s a year after Itsy Bitsy. He’s lost the company which is simultaneously a relief and another reason for Peter to feel down on himself. He’d never become a CEO if he’d known how many meetings and papers he’d have to sign - electronic or not. 

The dissolution of Parker Industries came with several perks, however, Peter was much more interested in the extra large helping of free time. He wasn’t going to lie to himself, it sucked to no longer have the resources to work on new tech for Spider-Man.

Ever since the road trip it had been hard to keep regularly meeting up with Wade, but Peter had made a careful effort to make Taco Tuesdays a part of his routine. Eventually it had switched from roof tops to an actual apartment Wade probably rented. Peter hadn’t bothered to check, and Wade probably paid cash anyways. It wasn’t as decked out as his little hide out that had been destroyed the year earlier, but Peter assumed he didn’t actually use it that often. 

So when things got rough with Wade’s marriage and Peter happened to have a lot of extra free time when he wasn’t working at Fresh Pond… well. Maybe they spent more than a little time running around New York in general. Wade wasn’t one to be dissuaded by regions and it seemed even Daredevil knew better than to argue with Deadpool of all people. Looking back, Peter’s reluctance to encroach the line between Queens and Hells Kitchen had been a bit silly. But to be honest, it had mostly been Frank Castle. After a frankly embarrassing fight with Frank and Matt, he’d been avoiding the area entirely. It had been bad enough to have Matt agree to “forget” a part of the fight. Wade had mentioned something about, “Team Red” but Peter had mostly ignored it. 

That was, until Wade brought it up a third time. He’d made pancakes with the daredevil logo on it. Peter had shot him a bemused look, “Did you make a new stencil?”

Wade flipped a pancake expertly, “Gotta condition you to like Daredevil so that Team Red issue can come out,” he had explained. Except that made no fucking sense. 

Peter had muttered, “I don’t even want to hang out with Matt.”

Wade had cocked a hip, his head tilting as he teased, “Maybe you just want my full attention and feel threatened by adding another man to the relationship!”

Peter groaned, angrily stabbing a particularly soggy portion of pancake and watching it fall apart on the plate, “Wade, there’s no relationship.”

Wade had shrugged, “If you say so. Witches don’t say we’re heart mates for nothing.”

Peter huffed, “They said the spell messed up,” he pointed out, actually cutting the pancake and eating it properly. 

Wade had just chuckled and said, “I don’t think so. Maybe deep down, you don’t think so either.”

Did Peter really believe in such a thing as soul and heart mates? Really, logically, he did not. But ever since his interactions with Loki, he had started to question if magic was just really advanced science that they had yet to understand. Fighting alongside or against anyone with magic had forced Peter to question his beliefs more than a dozen times. This was no exception. His life was so wacky and wild that he regularly started to wonder what would happen next.

He wasn’t going to lie, he’d done his best to research heart mates. All he’d really found is a pacemaker called a Heartmate and some really obscure blogs that seemed to make up the term. Not even mainstream woos had the term in their vocabulary. There was some nonsense about how you choose your heart mate, but you don’t choose your soul mate. Did that mean that a person could be both or they could be two entirely different people. It sounded like something you might hear from someone practicing in polyamory. 

Peter for the life of him, couldn’t figure out why he was “destined” to pick Wade to live out the rest of his life with. Logically it made sense that he’d pick another superhero… not a struggling anti-hero trying to become a hero. But it appeared that Wade had already picked him. 

Peter didn’t know how to feel about that. Logically, he enjoyed Wade’s company. While he had a deeper understanding with Wade than he did any other hero, he didn’t see why it had to be anything… else. Wade constantly hit on him and it honestly made him deeply uncomfortable. 

MJ had known better than to drag him to a gay bar, but MJ knew things Wade didn’t. Things Peter didn’t even like to think about and if he was being honest, he’d mostly forgotten until he had an infamous mercenary complimenting his ass and trying to cop a feel. But this wasn’t just an anti-hero, this was Wade Wilson. Deadpool. 

Several incidents later, Wade had learned the definition of private space. It didn’t mean that he didn’t linger a second too long when handing things to Peter, or stand a little too close to be just friendly. All of these were things Peter was pretty hyper-sensitive to, but he hadn’t really confronted the other man. They were harmless. He could trust that Wilson wasn’t going to escalate further while they’re in the heat of the moment.

It was several months later when Wade had started getting touchy again. He’d “noticed” that Peter had the box of Pizza he wanted to sample and instead of asking had pressed in behind Peter, hand on Peter’s hip as he stole a slice. Peter had gone stiff as a rod, knuckles whitening on the box. 

Normally Wade would back off, but this time he basically inhaled the slice of pizza with Peter’s suited hip under his palm. Peter’s body was unwilling to relax and as Wade had grabbed the second slice the hero had pulled away, putting space in between himself and Wade as calmly as he possibly could with a minor panic attack settling in. 

Wade’s expression had been one of concealed hurt when he’d talked Peter down from the near-attack and Peter couldn’t help but feel awful for making Wade feel like it was his fault Peter overreacted. 

He’d been sat down on the couch, his knees drawn up to his chest. The guilt was eating him up and he frowned at Wade who was trying to hide his hurt by hunting for a movie to watch, back turned to Peter so he didn’t have to school his expression.

“What do you think Spidey? I personally think it’d be a great time to re-watch some of the classics,” he rambled.

Peter stared at the way Wade was forcing the hunch of his shoulders to artificially smooth out, “Wade.” 

Wade continued, “I mean, I prefer to eat popcorn when I rewatch the sequels but I can make a tiiiny excepti-”

“Wade,” and with that all the tension went taught again, the mercenary’s shoulders tightening further like he expected to be chastised. Peter sighed and the older man glanced behind him as if he was verifying this visually, not that it really mattered with the masks on. 

Apparently Wade didn’t read any major aggression in his posture because he went serious, “I’m sorry, Spidey. I know it makes you uncomfortable and I should have stayed hands off-”

Peter huffed. Wade froze with visual confusion, “... oooooooorrr not?” the man volunteered.

This was easier with the mask on, Peter decided. He cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably to stop hugging his knees as tightly, “Uh. I mean,” his mind searched for suitably vague answers to describe his phobia of intimate touch with another man. He’d never really had to explain it as a kid but it had become tough when he’d reached high school and suddenly all his male classmates looked like potential threats. He’d stopped having instant panic attacks years ago and everyone had learnt to leave him alone with Flash as the only exception. He focused on the only physical evidence of what happened to him. 

Wade was intent on hearing him out, clearly fighting back any potential fangirling that deeply contrasted with Peter’s somber and discontented mood. Peter’s mouth twisted as he reminded the man, “Remember that scar on my thigh?”

Wade stilled, clearly recalling the panicked body language Spidey had given when he’d brought it up last time. He’d filed the information away as a touchy subject not to bring up around Spider-Man, but now he was going to voluntarily get information about it. Sure, he was interested to learn more but he was also nervous, “Uh.” He shifted a little, “Yeah.”

Peter continued, too focused on getting what he needed out to really recognize the mercenaries anxiety in turn, “I got that as a kid,” he finished lamely, leaving it open for additional prodding. However, Wade just stood there patiently. 

Peter glanced up every few seconds as the silence grew longer, then shifted again. Wade knew it as a signal he was going to talk again and kept quiet. Spidey didn’t look at him as he continued, “I-... I overreacted.”

Wade’s face scrunched up in a way that was visible even with his mask on as he asserted with his arms crossed, “I still made you uncomfortable.”

Spidey’s head lifted, his expression clear now that he’d fully recovered from the near-miss of a panic attack and his voice was frustrated as he asserted in return, “No. You don’t make me uncomfortable.”

Wade was equally frustrated when he responded, “But I knew it might make you feel uncomfortable so I shouldn’t have done it. I just thought since I’d saw how close you got with Mocki-”

Peter bristled with barely concealed annoyance as his hands gestured in growing exasperation, “Wade, I’m not scared of you.”

“I would say it didn’t hurt my feelings but you know when I’m lyin-”

“For fucks sake Wade, I’m literally trying to tell you it’s not you. It’s me. As fucking cheesy as it sounds,” Peter grouses out, arms crossing, “It doesn’t matter if it was Bruce or Johnny, I’d act the same damn way. Worse, probably.”

Wade paused, clearly processing this, “so… it’s a man thing? Not a me thing?”

Peter nodded, shrinking further into the couch, “Uhuh.”

Wade squinted down at him but knew Spidey had no real reason to lie to him and damnit, it made a whole lot of sense. Spidey always got twitchy whenever Wade had tried to touch, but he’d literally seen Black Cat do much worse and have the man not flinch at all. 

He’d just assumed it was a familiarity thing or an orientation thing, but Spidey brought up the scar like it was relevant and- oh. “Oh.”

Peter on the other hand was relieved that Wade was smart enough to put it all together. He’d got tired of telling the story in summary or detail as a kid and had just been determined to forget it entirely. Going into detail and admitting it out loud meant acknowledging it and perhaps even worse, remembering parts. He shoved all that down, giving Wade an uneasy grin and trying for a joke, “Just. Er,” he started, “Think of it like immersion therapy?”

Wade had stared long and hard and Peter started to wonder if perhaps he’d broke the man by making such a shitty joke so close to a heartfelt moment. Eventually he seemed to break out of the conversation the boxes were having in his head, face breaking out in a brillant grin, “Do I get an honorary PHD?”

Peter visibly relaxed, snorting in return, “Doctor Deadpool does have alliteration to it,” he admitted rather than completely rebuffing the joke with one of his one. Wade squealed, diving onto the couch beside him like an overgrown child.


End file.
